


Steel

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 13:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15641802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Word prompt asked by alternate8reality back at tumblrIt was funny how fate could sometimes be constructed on a wish to a star that never got heard and the help of a fairy that told her she could make her meet what would be her soulmate. She had also refused that and yet, somehow had met with her the afternoon she was sneaking to her castle once again, dressed and magicked as someone else. Someone, she remembered as she took the first of the three final steps towards the upper side of the gallows, that had seen past her spell.“I know you.” She had said with vibrant green eyes. “From another place.”





	Steel

 

 

The screams of the people around her, the insults thrown on her way as well as spitted curses and objects, didn’t quite weigh as much as the manacles around her wrists. Heavy and polished, the way they rested on her arms as she walked forward, steps never once faltering as much as she wanted to, made her wince. The runes embedded on the insides, hot to the touch and creating blisters on her already castigated skin, was what the peasants didn’t see; the way the reddish glow of the arcana writing bit into her skin, clawing at her insides with every raise of her chest as she breathed the slight stale scent of slowly rotting vegetables from the market that rose beyond the rows of people.

Neither the flapping fabric of the stalls nor the narrow buildings that extended past that could hide the shadow of the slightly taller construction the guards behind her were pushing her towards and, as she looked at it, she could feel the heat of the runes almost lapping at her own magic, subdued to the point of being drained.

If she had her magic, she thought, mentally running through the hexes she knew she was capable of. That idea, however, was short lived as she turned to the left, following the natural inclination of the pebbled covered road, since she didn’t have access to her powers after all.

Licking her lips, she glanced briefly at the steel-made chain that linked both manacles together, the way it tottered with every step mocking her. Just as much as the screams of the frenzied men and women around her did.

The screams were many to discern but Regina didn’t have a problem on knowing what was the one more often to be screamed at her, righteous fury coloring the faces of the ones who had been her people with reddish hate. The same shade of the runes that fed on the hate around her, leaching her own magic and sending jolts of pain to her nerves.

The cursed Queen. No less than a month before, when Leopold had appeared dead on his bed, suspicions had quickly been made about her. Many were the ones who loved the deceased King and it didn’t matter the amount of allies Regina had tried to turn towards to. She was a stranger after all on the lands of the one who had been considered pure and good. Internal war was on its way and the day she had finally been incarcerated she had only been able to send a pigeon towards the other side of the wall that divided the town from the vast forest that grew, unruly, outside.

Calling for help, calling for her.

It was curious, she thought as she was led towards the gallows, the wooden frame of the building looking charred and dirty from where she stood, how fate had worked for her her entire life.

She hadn’t taken on Rumplestiskin’s next step, had only been guilty of sending her mother away but she hadn’t been able to take out the heart of the creature. Refusing, as the man had said it, to take what destiny was asking her to take. And still, there she was, a recent widow and nothing to her name but the title of assassin. Of witch. Of sorceress.

It was also funny how fate could sometimes be constructed on a wish to a star that never got heard and the help of a fairy that told her she could make her meet what would be her soulmate. She had also refused that and yet, somehow had met with her the afternoon she was sneaking to her castle once again, dressed and magicked as someone else. Someone, she remembered as she took the first of the three final steps towards the upper side of the gallows, that had seen past her spell.

“I know you.” She had said with vibrant green eyes. “From another place.”

Regina hadn’t asked what that place was. Had felt curiosity, intrigue, but had seen something else beyond that on that face; trust and love.

Love, she thought as the runes grew on heat as her executioner appeared among the crowd, face covered and dark robes hiding their figure. Love that had made her sent that pigeon; a single word written on it with shaky fingers and just a burst of lavender-hued magic.

“HELP.”

It was too late however, she could already taste the heady scent of blood around her as she was forced to kneel in front of the crowd, the thud her knees produced from the tired structure ominous enough that some from the front lines took a step back. Too late for hope and so, as she turned towards the one who would take her live, she thought again on what would have been her path if she had taken those other decisions, those other manacles that would have linked her to that destiny, that story.

_“It’s too late.”_

The thought made her sigh but nod as she rose her eyes to the sky, defiant and proper. She could be seen as nothing but a social climber, a dangerous sorceress and hex-wielder. She was none. She was Regina; now and ever and as such she would die.

Lips thin, she closed her eyes and turned her hands into fists, trembling as another wave from the runes told her that that hadn’t been a wise decision.

That was why, when the first yelp came, she was unsure where to look as she opened her eyes. Then, a second scream was heard, and an ever-growing dirty-white fire devoured half the side of a crown’s guard, everything turned into a vortex of screams and magic as a silhouette appeared in mid-air; green eyes the only thing Regina was able to distinguish.

“You came.” She managed to mutter as the figure stared at the last crown’s guard that was closer to both of them. She looked different than the first and second time they had met; more jagged, clothes darker and tighter around her figure, but those green pupils smiled back at her.

“Of course I did.”

The manacles fell into the ground, runes glowing one more time before dying, not able to re-direct pain to their wearer anymore. Regina saw them fall and stood as one warm, gentle hand, took hers. When she looked up again the woman who had presented herself as Emma was staring at her, a halo of crackling magic sparks lighting her face as she nodded at her.

“Come with me.”

It was curious how stories were written, how decisions could be seen as minute only to change everything if they weren’t pick. On this case, however, Regina took the offer with only a nod.

To freedom, she thought. To her.

**Author's Note:**

> I take prompts on my tumblr account -shadowdianne- and I just sort of have that same name all around internet so if you want more rts about SQ that should be healthy and a lot -quite a lot more than what I post here- ficlets and drabbles and stories.. I will be either at twitter or tumblr!
> 
> Just let me know what you think ;)


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